note: This is the second of a 3-part blog post about a group of quilts I made for a family in Alaska. Please read Part 1 for the back story.

Part 2 features the quilts I made for Bhree’s two daughters, Emma and Lizzie, and her grandmother, Margaret, who happens to live in my home city of Portland, Oregon. As I mentioned in Part 1, not every family member’s quilt was made with the same combination of clothing. Margaret’s, for instance, needed to include her husband, Clyde’s, Renda’s, and some of her own clothing. The girls’ quilts needed to include their father, Dan, Renda, Clyde, and Margaret’s clothing.

Bhree told me that Margaret loved flowers and gardening, so we chose my Flower Patch pattern for her quilt. All the more lovely to find out that Margaret’s husband, Clyde, was also a Royal Rosarian. For those of you who don’t know, Royal Rosarians are “the official greeters and goodwill Ambassadors for the City of Portland”. Portland is also known as the City of Roses, and the Royal Rosarians have a prominent place in the Rose Festival Parade every June. When I lifted Clyde’s iconic green and white Rosarian suit out of his collection of clothing, I knew it would have to play a prominent visual role in Margaret’s Flower Patch.

Clyde also had a great group of ties that featured prominently in the quilt.

The green and ivory Royal Rosarian suit became the checkerboard blocks which were the base for the appliquéd flowers.

I chose a light green linen for the lattice, border, and backing to add to the spring garden feeling.

I transferred the Royal Rosarian patch onto a quilt block as one of the appliquéd flowers.

Many of the flower centers were little sections of the ties.

I strip-pieced the border which added nice visual movement.

Here is Margaret’s finished quilt and a detail.

For the first time ever, I chose a quilted stitching pattern with birds in it! They’re subtle, but they’re there.

Next, I turned my attention to the two Tree quilts for Bhree’s daughters, Emma and Lizzie. As I mentioned above, their quilts were to have clothing from their dad, Dan, their grandmother, Renda, and their great grandparents, Margaret and Clyde.

As usual, I worked from a schematic I had created once I knew which fabrics I had to work with.

Keeping all the left-leaning and right-lean triangles organized took some attention.

Clyde’s green Royal Rosarian jacket became the center trunk of the tree.

Here is Lizzie’s finished quilt and a detail.

Next came Emma’s Tree.

Dan’s green print shirt became the center trunk for Emma’s Tree.

Emma’s finished quilt and detail.

Stay tuned for the final part of A Family of Quilts which features the two wall quilts for Bhree’s cousins.